Events

Drop-in Chat Thursday, 15 May 9:30 – 11:30 a.m. EDT

Want to chat over a coffee and sweet treat with BIFHSGO friends?

Drop in to The White Pine Café at Arlington Woods Church 225 McClellan Road, off Greenbank Road. 

This is a hybrid meeting:

• Join us in person at Knox Presbyterian Church (Lisgar & Elgin) in Geneva Hall.  Please use the Garden Entrance on Elgin Street. Limited free street parking is available on Saturdays, and the City Hall Parking Garage is available for $2.00.
• Join online by registering here. The registration covers both events.

(From the Vaults) Copyright for the Family Historian / 9 a.m. EDT

Presenter: Marnie McCall

Marnie will reprise the talk she gave in December 2016. It will cover the basics of copyright, the meaning of public domain, copyright in your own work, using copyright material of others in your research or presentations, and copyright in family photos and letters.

Marnie McCall joined BIFHSGO at the 2005 Conference when the theme was Scotland. Before going to the Rededication of the Vimy Memorial in 2007, she wanted to find out where her paternal grandfather, John McCall, had served in World War I.  She served on the Board of BIFHSGO for several years as Treasurer, is currently filling an unexpired term on the Board, and also is an ACR proofreader.  She became interested in copyright issues in 1972 and has followed the subject closely for many years.

Rebuilding the Body After the First World War / 10 a.m. EDT

Presenter: Kristen den Hertog

At the end of the First World War, wounded soldiers were returning to Canada in huge numbers, and the country was scrambling for space to treat them all. By 1919, near the corner of Christie and Dupont streets in Toronto’s west end, a military hospital opened in a renovated cash register factory. It was meant to be a temporary space, but in fact was still there when the next war began, and another generation of soldiers crowded into its wards.

In this presentation, author Kristen den Hartog will give us a glimpse of the fascinating work that went on at the Christie Street Hospital, and some of the people who were its patients and staff: a Liverpudlian home child who likely enlisted with the hopes of seeing his family again; a Scottish tuberculosis patient who married his nurse; a sculptor from Nottingham who became known as a "facial architect," making masks for men with facial wounds. Many of these people were new Canadians when war broke out, and they suddenly found themselves crossing the ocean again. With the help of old letters, diaries, newspapers, and military service records, Kristen will explore the aftermath of war for some of Christie Street's men and women, and how they dealt with the ways war changed them.

Kristen den Hartog's highly acclaimed new book The Roosting Box: Rebuilding the Body After the First World War was shortlisted for 2024 Toronto Book Awards. She is also the co-author of two family memoirs, The Occupied Garden and The Cowkeeper’s Wish, praised by Canada’s History for its “meticulous research on a stupendous scale.” Work on these intimate histories of ordinary families sparked the writing of The Roosting Box and Kristen’s ongoing interest in how war changes people’s lives so dramatically. Originally from Deep River in the Ottawa Valley, she lives in Lyndhurst, Ontario, and in Toronto, not far from the site of the former Christie Street Hospital.

This is a hybrid meeting:

• Join us in person at Knox Presbyterian Church (Lisgar & Elgin) in Geneva Hall.  Please use the Garden Entrance on Elgin Street. Limited free street parking is available on Saturdays, and the City Hall Parking Garage is available for $2.00.
• Join online by registering here

. This registration covers both events.

Annual General Meeting / 9 a.m. EDT

Meeting documents available at Annual General Meeting will include:

• Agenda for the AGM
• Minutes  of the 2024 Annual General Meeting
  
• Directors' Report
• Financial statements

Documents will be posted as they become available.

Great Moments / 10 a.m. EDT

From Penrhyndedraeth to Peterborough: Digging Deeper into My Welsh Ancestry

Presenter: Laurie Dougherty

This Great Moment will explore Laurie Dougherty’s search for her Welsh ancestors starting with her maternal grandparents Blodwen Evans and Robert Jones. Blodwen left her home at the age of 19 to work in Liverpool before marrying Robert Jones, a master baker from Bala. Laurie will share some of the challenges she encountered while conducting genealogical research in Wales as she follows her grandparent’s journey from Penrhyndedraeth in North Wales to Peterborough, Ontario.

Throughout her 30-year career as an archivist, Laurie Dougherty worked at various institutions including Library and Archives Canada, the Archives of Ontario, the Ottawa Jewish Archives and the Arnprior and McNab/Braeside Archives. Now in retirement, Laurie enjoys writing a blog “Graveside Stories”, and volunteering for the archives in Arnprior, where she has lived for 30 years. She is also an active member and past president of the Arnprior Family History Group. Currently, Laurie is serving her first term as BIFHSGO Secretary.

Laurie began her genealogical journey in 1997, when she interviewed her mother about her Welsh ancestry. She tucked the audio cassette recording away for “later”, having other priorities and a young family at the time. For her mother’s 92nd birthday in 2020, Laurie created a small family history book using Family Book Creator, which featured a transcription of that interview. It was a successful first attempt but Laurie is looking forward to updating and revising the format of the book in the future.

A Cautionary Tale: How I Built a Brickwall with DNA

Presenter: Barbara Tose    

After 20 years of researching her family history and a perfect paper trail, Barbara tested family members’ DNA hoping to find more Tose relatives and perhaps solve a few minor questions. What was revealed was one very big surprise and a brick wall she never anticipated.

Barbara Tose has been researching her family history since a 1982 trip to her grandfather’s hometown of Whitby in North Yorkshire. Over the years she has enjoyed presenting interesting aspects of her research in talks and articles.

A Genealogical Revelation: From an Only Child to a Family of Nine

Presenter: Andy Desjardins             

A Great Moment in genealogy can be funny, heartfelt, enlightening, or devastating. What really matters is how you deal with it. Here's a very personal story that has all of those elements and then some and how one senior dealt with a life altering discovery. It should also be a cautionary tale for new genealogists embarking on their research. Things may not be as they seem and be prepared for the unexpected. This story is about living your life as an only child with no siblings to waking up to being a family of nine! This is all thanks for the power of DNA analysis which can release skeletons from within closets that you never knew existed. Good, bad, or indifferent, it's all a matter of perspective.

Andy Desjardins was born and raised in Ottawa and returned home a few years ago after retiring from Procter & Gamble in Toronto. His interest in genealogy started in 2008 while in Toronto. He joined BIFHSGO in 2023 as a natural continuation of his genealogical journey. He is an ACR contributor with a story published in the Fall 2024 issue about his Scottish war bride mother-in-law. You may also recognize him as the host of BIFHSGO's monthly meetings.